A two-day conference at the University of Leicester, exploring the range of new methods and theoretical approaches with which scholars are currently transforming the study of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century travel.

In recent years, the study of seventeenth-and eighteenth-century travel has come under revision from numerous quarters. Scholars have sought to look beyond the traditional ‘lure of Italy’ and the elite male Grand Tour to identify a wide array of travel practices and cultures, ranging from the rise of child-friendly family ‘pleasure trips’ to the socio-political agendas of elite female travellers and sight-seeing itineraries of soldiers. Alongside this, current scholars of travel history are engaging with a creative array of fresh methodological and theoretical approaches. As an often richly documented life experience, travel is emerging as fruitful site of engagement for those interested in extending scholarly understandings of areas such as the histories of emotion, the senses, family strategy and the actual processes of learning.

Delving beyond ars apodemica and the field of travel literature, this two-day conference (funded by the British Academy) explores the range of new methods and theoretical approaches with which scholars are currently transforming the study of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century travel. It brings together some of the most recent scholarship on the cultures, practices, and experiences of early modern and eighteenth-century travel. Friday will involve a reading group workshop, a keynote from Professor Elaine Chalus (Liverpool), and a wine reception to launch Beyond the Grand Tour: Northern Metropolises and Early Modern Travel Behaviour (Routledge, 2017). On Saturday, established and early career researchers will give papers that explore emerging themes and methods in travel history. We invite you to join us for two days of stimulating discussion of this exciting and developing field.

Confirmed speakers include:

  • Professor Elaine Chalus, University of Liverpool (Keynote Speaker)
  • Emeritus Professor Michèle Cohen, Richmond American International University, London
  • Dr Chloe Chard, Independent Scholar
  • Dr Emma Pauncefort, UCL
  • Dr Gerrit Verhoeven, University of Antwerp
  • Dr Katrina O’Loughlin, University of Western Australia
  • Dr John Gallagher, University of Cambridge
  • Dr Mark Williams, Cardiff University
  • Dr Richard Ansell, University of Leicester
  • Dr Sarah Goldsmith, University of Leicester

To book, please follow the link: http://shop.le.ac.uk/product-catalogue/events-at-leicester/school-of-his...

For further information, please email culturesandpracticesoftravel  at gmail.com